PHC Zebras 3

BAA 1

Casey Castle and Shakir Smith shared the goals as PHC Zebras beat BAA 3-1 at PHC Field yesterday.

However, an incident midway through the first half could have had a strong bearing on the outcome as Daniel Johnston, the PHC goalkeeper, was shown a yellow card for a deliberate handball outside his box to deny Derrick Brangman as he tried a lob.

A defender was covering inside the box, which may have swayed Lyndon Raynor, the referee, in his decision not to issue a red card.

A sending off would have left PHC a man short and without a substitute goalkeeper.

Kenny Thompson, the BAA coach, let his feelings be known to Raynor as the teams went off at half-time.

Smith missed good chances before and after the incident, shooting over the bar on both occasions, including the second time when Castle chested the ball down for him near the edge of the box.

However, Smith made amends four minutes later when he put the home side in front.

Smith curled a left-footed free kick around the BAA wall before the diving Sereiko Thomas allowed the bouncing ball to get past him at the near post.

The goal helped settle PHC down and the match seemed over when Castle opened his account in the 65th minute with a well-taken effort after Marquel Waldron’s pass put him through.

Castle kept his cool to slot the ball past Thomas and into the far bottom corner.

BAA immediately brought on Malachi Jones for Brangman, one Somerset Cup Match cricketer for another, and Jones immediately gave BAA some extra thrust up front.

He came close to pulling a goal back in the 80th minute when he created space for himself before driving a low shot just wide.

Jones did find the net four minutes later when his volley from the edge of the box was fumbled by Johnson before the ball rolled over the line.

However, BAA’s hopes of a late equaliser were dashed when Castle struck again in the 88th minute to restore PHC’s two-goal lead.